Erdogan says testing Turkey would be "fatal mistake"

October 05, 2012|Reuters

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that testing Turkey would be "a fatal mistake", in a warning to Damascus in the wake of Syrian shelling of a town in southeast Turkey that killed five people.

Turkish artillery bombarded Syrian military targets on Wednesday and Thursday in response to the shelling by Syrian forces and Ankara has made clear it is ready to launch more retaliatory strikes if the war spills across the border.

The salvoes killed several Syrian soldiers, and Turkey's parliament stepped up pressure on the political front by authorizing cross-border military action in the event of further aggression.

Striking a belligerent tone in a speech to a crowd in Istanbul, Erdogan said: "We are not interested in war, but we're not far from it either. This nation has come to where it is today having gone through intercontinental wars.

"Those who attempt to test Turkey's deterrence, its decisiveness, its capacity, I say here they are making a fatal mistake," he said.

"When they say 'if you want peace prepare for war' it means that when the time comes, war becomes the key to peace".

Despite the rhetoric, Turkey has said it will act under international law and in coordination with other foreign powers.

The U.N. Security Council on Thursday condemned the Syrian strike, while the United States has said it stands by its NATO ally's right to defend itself against aggression spilling over from Syria's internal armed conflict.